Commercially available BCl.sub.3 (boron trichloride) of the highest purity still contains up to 0.1 percent COCl.sub.2 (phosgene) contaminant. This contaminant or impurity causes difficulties when BCl.sub.3 is used in the electronics industry, as a catalyst in numerous ways such as in the production of styrene, as an additive for high energy fuels, in the refining of various refractory metals, etc. Removal of the impurity from BCl.sub.3 by economical methods has to data proven unsuccessful.
Advantageous would be a method to remove phosgene from boron trichloride or to change the phosgene to dissociation products which do not interfere with boron trichloride for its particular function or whereby the dissociation products of phosgene can be easily separated by conventional methods if required for boron trichloride catalysis function.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a method for the dissociation of phosgene in the presence of BCl.sub.3 without loss of BCl.sub.3 concentration.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method to purify BCl.sub.3 from the contaminant phosgene with laser radiation.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method for dissociation of phosgene in BCl.sub.3 with a cw CO.sub.2 laser radiation whereby the fundamentals of BCl.sub.3 are resonant with the laser radiation to effect energy transfer to COCl.sub.2 and results in its dissociation.
Still a further object of this invention is to provide a method of dissociation of phosgene in the presence of C.sub.2 H.sub.4 that has combination bands and overtones that match reasonably close to the fundamental energy of phosgene to effect efficient V--V transfer of laser energy responsible for the dissociation of phosgene.